New: 10 of the best Android apps for education in 2012

By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

June 1st, 2012

Splashtop Whiteboard Allows teachers and students to turn their Android tablet into an interactive whiteboard.

Last year we presented “Ten of the best Android apps for education,” which highlighted some of the best apps for Google Android-based mobile devices. Now, with recent upgrades in touch technology and HD features, we’ve come up with a new list of the best Android-based education apps for 2012.

This year’s list includes some of the most highly rated apps, both by teachers and by students, and features a range that spans from an innovative and hyperlinked dictionary developed by the Cognitive Science Laboratory at Princeton University to an interactive whiteboard app for tablets.

For every app we’ve listed, we’ve included a brief description, software compatibility, suggested use, features, price, rating, and a link to a more in-depth summary with an option to purchase on Google.

Don’t see an Android app you love on this list? Be sure to let us know—or leave a suggestion in the comment section.

(Apps are listed in alphabetical order.)

1. Name: Advanced English & Thesaurus

What is it? Instead of following the standard dictionary format, the WordNet dictionary is organized with an innovative and convenient approach. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms, interlinked by means of conceptual-semantic and lexical relations. In addition to the straightforward definition, the dictionary shows how each word is linked to other words in terms of synonyms, opposites, and similar words, but also hyponyms and hyperlinks within the group.

Best for: High school students, teachers; Android 2.0 & up

Price: Free

Rated: 4.3 out of 5

Features: Straightforward and precise definitions of over 140,000 words, with more than 250,000 linkss; synonyms, antonyms, similar and related words to help you make your writing and speech more interesting; hypernyms (more generic words), hyponyms (subordinate words), and meronyms (part names); examples illustrate how words are used and show typical constructions and collocations; transcriptions facilitating pronunciation; hyperlinks between different related words; history to see the last 50 words you have looked up; support for memory cards; filters to help you locate the word you are searching for.